Our Junior Curator meeting this afternoon was great despite the absence of three of our members (Lancy, Allison and Katie) and the heat and humidity. Shelly, Jessie, Richard and Anne continued their exploration of Folk Art at Old York.
First the homework: we each brought an object (or two) from home that we thought was representative of folk art.
First the homework: we each brought an object (or two) from home that we thought was representative of folk art.
Here are a few of these objects:
Are they Folk Art? Jessie's sewing basket and vase, Shelly's "I Love You Mom" plaque, Richard's napkin....
If the object is made by someone who isn't formally trained, if the object is not mass-produced (sorry, Jessie, your basket is "made in Taiwan"!), if it is made by an artist for a specific community, then can we call it "Folk Art"?
Is this vase Folk Art?
The objects we brought have a story, we all have a strong emotional attachment to them, and it was nice to listen to each person describe the origins of the object....but this does not necessarily make the object an article of Folk Art.We then headed to the Perkins House by the York River, another one of Old York's historic properties. There we took pictures of objects we thought were Folk Art.
Here are a few samples (we took many more photos...)
Ink well (Henry Chapman Mercer, PA, 1912)
Tile 
Hooked Rug (York provenance)
Woman in Black with Brown Ribbons (Ruth and Samuel Shute, 1831-33)
Religious artOn our way back to York Village, we stopped at the George Marshall Store Gallery and asked Curator Mary Harding if she had any Folk Art for us...no, all her artists are formally trained.
But the show 140 is wonderful. Hurry! you still have a few days to see it!
1 comment:
Darn, now I'm not sure if the last comment I posted worked. Aww man. It was long and well thought out too! Well anyways it talked about how much I enjoyed learning about folk art this summer so far, and that we have a lot of fun.
~Shelly
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